TESTIMONY OF DR. JANET
DUDLEY-ESHBACHPresident of Salisbury University

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman
and members of the Subcommittee. For the record,
my name is Janet Dudley-Eshbach, and I am proud
to be completing my seventh year as President of
Salisbury University. The past year has easily
been the most memorable and successful of my
presidential tenure, capped by a series of
historic events that will enable Salisbury
University to sustain its rise to national
distinction. I am grateful for the opportunity
to share the highlights of our banner year with
the Subcommittee, to thank each of you for your
ongoing support and to speak about the
exhilarating opportunities that lie ahead for
this great institution.

A Maryland University of National Distinction

In 2006, Salisbury University solidified its reputation as one of
America’s truly great universities, garnering important recognitions
from the nation’s leading authorities on higher education excellence. We
were named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top five public
universities of our classification in the northern United States. For
the eighth consecutive year we were designated by The Princeton Review
as one of “The Best 361 Colleges” in the U.S., and for the third
straight year we were named by Kaplan Newsweek as one of “America’s 369
Most Interesting Schools.” Finally, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
magazine named Salisbury University one of the “100 Best Values in
Public Colleges” in February 2007. We have earned national acclaim
despite receiving less state funding than all but one of our national
performance peers and ranking last among University System of Maryland (USM)
institutions in combined state operating support. This stands as
testament to the caliber of SU’s faculty and staff, the extraordinary
culture of private giving that has guided our institution through
challenging times, and a commitment to exacting fiscal stewardship that
enables us to invest the maximum possible share of public dollars in our
classrooms and students.

A Banner Year for Salisbury University

Salisbury University’s unique ability to accomplish more with less
resulted in resounding votes of confidence in 2006 from our most
important constituencies. The Chancellor and Board of Regents, the
Maryland General Assembly, the students and families we serve, and the
alumni upon whom we depend so heavily have offered enthusiastic
endorsements of our progress to date and confidence in our ability to
sustain this momentum in the years to come.

Balancing Quality, Diversity and Enrollment Growth

Based largely upon our ability to balance affordability, access and
quality on a limited budget, the Board of Regents last year designated
Salisbury University as one of three “enrollment growth institutions”
within the USM. In response, the General Assembly provided Salisbury
University with the operating budget support needed to accommodate 323
additional students in 2006-07. I am pleased to report that Salisbury
University has met and exceeded our ambitious enrollment target—our
total student enrollment for the fall 2006 semester stood at 7,383, an
increase of 374 students above the previous year. Provided that the
funding support remains to sustain the state’s policy of enrollment
growth, we are excited by this opportunity to open the doors to higher
learning—and to the extraordinary personal and professional
opportunities that come with a university diploma—for a greater number
of deserving students.

I am thrilled to report that Salisbury University’s current student
body is one of the most accomplished and, by far, the most racially,
ethnically and geographically diverse in our history. Our average SAT
range of 1050-1210 and average GPA of 3.5 both rank first among our
national performance peers. Furthermore, 56 percent of all current SU
students graduated in the top quarter of their high school graduating
class. We are competing for Maryland’s best and brightest students, and
we are keeping them. Our second-year retention rate of 81 percent ranks
second among our national performance peers, and our four-year student
graduation rate has led the USM for 18 of the past 19 years.

Salisbury University vs. Our
Performance Peers (2005)

One of the benchmark goals of my presidency has been the
establishment of a student body that reflects the remarkable ethnic and
racial diversity of our state. We are meeting and exceeding that goal.
Our minority population increased by nearly 10 percent over this past
year, and it has really doubled over the past decade. Our total
African-American and Latino enrollments each grew by 10 percent over the
past year and are now at all-time highs. Our Asian-American enrollment
is also at an all-time high, having grown by over 140 percent over the
past decade. Furthermore, the globalization of SU’s student population
continued over the past year, with 49 nations now represented within our
student body.

A school that was once known primarily as an “Eastern Shore
institution” has attracted an increasingly statewide constituency as our
reputation has grown. Just a decade ago, 39 percent of our total student
body came from the Eastern Shore, compared with 38 percent from the rest
of Maryland.

Today, 53 percent of our students hail from what we colloquially call
the “Western Shore,” and eight of our top feeder counties are located on
the other side of the Bay Bridge. SU’s growing reputation as a
competitive yet affordable institution, the beauty of our campus, our
small and interactive learning environments, and our convenient access
to Maryland’s metropolitan regions have made Salisbury University a
higher learning destination of first choice.

A Statewide and Regional Economic Engine

Salisbury University’s rise to national acclaim has coincided with
its emergence as one of the most powerful engines of Maryland’s
knowledge-based economy. Our four professional schools are producing
many of our state’s most sought-after health care professionals,
high-tech workers, entrepreneurs and teachers.

Our concentration on
workforce development is evidenced by our most popular fields of study.
Currently, our five largest undergraduate majors are Business
Administration, Communication Arts, Biology, Elementary Education and
Nursing. Other workforce-oriented disciplines began with modest
enrollment figures, but have experienced dramatic expansion in recent
years as their reputations and market value have increased. Enrollment
in our Respiratory Therapy program, for example, has grown by 150
percent since 2002, while our Marketing program has expanded from nine
majors to 254 during that same period.

Closer to home, Salisbury University’s Business, Economic and
Community Outreach Network (BEACON) provides our region’s private sector
leaders with information—such as consumer trends, demographic data and
sector forecasts—that helps guide long-term business decisions. Two
BEACON programs of note have proven extremely valuable in meeting the
needs of our region’s diversifying economy. The GrayShore initiative was
established to educate service providers and local governments about the
Shore’s growing aging population and to help them prepare for the effect
of this demographic trend on our economy, workforce and service needs.
Bienvenidos a Delmarva, a coalition of over 70 service providers, helps
provide our region’s growing immigrant population with the support
services, community relationships and legal resources needed to secure
stable, good-paying jobs. A recent study concluded that SU generates
more than $350 million in annual, regional economic activity and
sustains the equivalent of 3,000 local jobs.

Private Philanthropy for the Public Good

From its birth as a one-room schoolhouse in 1925, Salisbury
University has been guided and sustained by a culture of private giving
that is truly unique for public institutions of our size. For example,
all four of our professional schools—the Seidel School of Education and
Professional Studies, the Perdue School of Business, the Henson School
of Science and Technology, and the Fulton School of Liberal Arts—are
privately endowed, a relative rarity for schools such as ours.

This
philanthropic ethic is a reflection of what SU has meant to the Delmarva
Peninsula’s economy, culture and quality of life over the past 80 years.
It also underscores the confidence that we have earned among our largest
and most crucial stakeholders, and validates Salisbury University’s
increasingly entrepreneurial approach to donor outreach. Without our
ability to balance state appropriations with private support, Salisbury
University could not have survived years of fiscal and budgetary
uncertainty.

The SU community came together at several points over the past year
to celebrate many extraordinary displays of generosity, each of which
will shape our ability to balance affordability, access and quality for
years to come. In March 2006, Jim Perdue announced an $8 million
donation from the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation toward a new building for
the Franklin P. Perdue School of Business. This contribution was the
largest donation in Salisbury University’s history.

Along with
anticipated State capital funds, this gift will be used to construct a
state-of-the-art, 112,500 square-foot facility for the Perdue School’s
academic, research and business outreach programs. Over the past decade,
the Perdue School of Business has experienced 63 percent enrollment
growth— by far the fastest rate of growth among our four academic
schools—and is now ranked in the top 20 percent of all business schools
in the United States. This building will equip our Perdue School with
the learning technology it needs to solidify its growing national
reputation while grooming tomorrow’s CEOs, accountants and finance
officers for success in today’s global marketplace.

Taking Excellence to New Heights

In June, we celebrated SU’s 80th anniversary by launching our second
multi-year Capital Campaign. Led by our private Salisbury University
Foundation, the Campaign—titled Taking Excellence to New Heights—aspired
to raise $25 million by 2012 for student scholarships, new and enhanced
academic buildings, our NCAA athletic programs, and our acclaimed visual
and performing arts. Because of our early success, we have increased our
target to $30 million.

The Lucy Tull Scholarship Program:
Meeting the Health Care Needs of Our Region and State

In December, we celebrated the announcement of a $5.3 million gift
from the estate of Ms. Lucy Tull. This award—the largest individual
donor gift in SU’s history, as well as our largest planned gift—will be
used primarily to establish the Lucy Tull Scholarship Program for
Eastern Shore students who wish to pursue a degree in Nursing or another
of our allied health sciences. A portion of the gift also will be used
for classroom supplies, learning technology and faculty development.

As
the only institution that offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in
Nursing on the Eastern Shore, SU is working aggressively to respond to
the growing statewide demand for highly-trained health care
professionals. Enrollment in our Nursing Department has nearly doubled
over the past five years and now ranks as one of SU’s five
fastest-growing undergraduate majors. This gift will help us respond
even more effectively to Maryland’s acute nursing shortage and to ensure
that deserving students from our home region will havethe opportunity to pursue careers in this important andrewarding profession.

In spite of this historic gift, however, we are increasingly
concerned about the challenges posed by our own success in the health
care marketplace. We have struggled mightily over the past five years to
meet the demands of market-driven enrollment growth with limited
financial resources. Our Nursing Department’s ability to produce
workforce-ready nurses in sufficient numbers is threatened by
below-market faculty salaries, inability to hire new doctoral-level
faculty, increased workload, reduced administrative staffing and an
insufficient number of field sites for clinical education. Over the
long-term, Salisbury University’s ability to keep pace with market
demand—at a time when Maryland’s population is growing and aging
significantly—will depend upon a substantial increase in funding
support. We ask that SU be included in all statewide effort to enhance
funding of nursing programs.

Building for the Future

In September, the Salisbury University community gathered to
officially break ground on our new Teacher Education and Technology
Center (TETC). Actual construction of the three-story, 165,000 square
foot facility began in July. The TETC will be ready for occupancy in
2008 and will eventually replace our aging and outdated Caruthers Hall—a
53,500 square-foot building that opened in 1955 and underwent renovation
in 1979. It will house SU’s Seidel School for Education and Professional
Studies, along with several departments from the Fulton School of
Liberal Arts.

Upon completion, the TETC will forever change the aesthetics of our
campus and the manner in which teaching and learning occur at Salisbury
University. The TETC will feature a mega-computer lab, an interactive
distance learning center, an integrated, wireless media center, “smart
classrooms,” teaching methods labs, a photography center and
state-of-the-art broadcast production studios. It will bring our
renowned teacher education programs, as well as our Communication and
Theatre Arts Department, to the forefront of the Information Age.

By virtue of its memorable design elements and prominent location at
the intersection of U.S. Route 13 and College Avenue, the TETC will
finally provide Salisbury University with a distinctive visual identity
for regional travelers and will offer current and prospective students a
more welcoming entrance to our main campus. We are grateful for the
construction funds that the General Assembly approved last year for this
transformational project, and we will respectfully request your support
for the $9.6 million that is contained in Governor O’Malley’s proposed
FY 2008 capital budget for construction, furniture and equipment.

The enrollment growth that we have accommodated in recent years has
placed considerable strain on SU’s finite supply of classrooms,
laboratories, parking lots and living areas. Recognizing this challenge,
and anticipating the effects of additional enrollment growth, SU is
implementing a plan to redistribute many of our non-academic facilities
and student services across U.S. Route 13. This area—commonly referred
to as “East Campus”—already accommodates our athletic fields and houses
many of our most popular community resources, including SU’s public
access television studio and the Nabb Research
Center.

Over the past year alone, we have added 630 student parking spaces on
two parcels of leased property, moved our University Police headquarters
to East Campus and have purchased 9.4 acres of prime industrial property
for future campus development. As a result, we have been able to provide
a portion of our freshman class with parking, an amenity that makes SU
an even more attractive option for many of Maryland’s top students. It
also has enabled us to prepare for continued enrollment growth while
ensuring that the traditional elements of student life—such as classroom
learning, private study and social engagement— remain centered upon our
historic main campus.

2007: A Year of Innovation and Possibility

While Salisbury University can look back with justifiable pride upon
a historic year of accomplishment, I wish to reassure this committee
that we will not rest on our laurels in 2007. Instead, the
administration, faculty and staff of Salisbury University will continue
to approach our unmet challenges with a shared spirit of innovation and
possibility.

In our ongoing effort to compete successfully for Maryland’s most
promising students, for example, we have initiated a five-year pilot
study to make submission of SAT and ACT scores optional for certain SU
applicants. Under the proposal approved by the Board of Regents,
prospective students with high school grade point averages of 3.5 or
higher will have the option of submitting these standardized test
results with their applications.

It is our experience that primary dependence upon such standardized
tests has disqualified too many accomplished students from consideration
for admission and has even discouraged them from applying to Salisbury
University. In addition to being an unreliable barometer of academic
potential, such tests have added an element of social stratification to
the college admissions process. Simply put, students who are able to
invest considerable financial resources into private tutelage and prep
courses generally outperform those students who are not.

With these considerations in mind, Salisbury University’s admissions
policies have evolved in recent years into a more comprehensive process,
one that places greater emphasis upon a student’s academic body of work
and record of civic engagement. Over time, these factors have proven to
be stronger predictors of academic success than the SAT or ACT. It is
worth noting that several prominent institutions in the Mid-Atlantic
region—including Drew University, George Mason University and Gettysburg
College—have adopted test-optionaladmissions
policies, as have three of our national performance peers.

We recognize that this philosophy is not shared universally and
acknowledge that it may not survive the test of time. For now, we are
truly excited to be the first institution within the USM to test this
innovative admissions strategy.

Over the next year, we will also continue to evaluate the merits of a
course-based curriculum. Currently used at many private colleges and
universities, this model uses courses instead of credit hours as the
basic measure of academic content. While our current credit-based
curriculum requires at least 40 courses of three credits each for a
degree, students in a course-based curriculum would take 32-35 courses
to satisfy major and graduation requirements. While there are compelling
arguments in favor of a course-based curriculum, we are also mindful
that there are significant practical challenges that must be addressed
prior to implementation and, therefore, intend to proceed with due
caution.

Salisbury University elevated its statewide presence in 2006 by
establishing programs at several of Maryland’s distance learning
centers, and we will build upon this progress in the coming year. We
have negotiated an agreement to offer our Social Work program at both
Cecil Community College and the Eastern Shore Higher Education Center in
Wye Mills. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed and interactive
courses officially began at both campuses last month.

Beginning this fall, Salisbury University will offer a bachelor’s
degree in Social Work at the University System of Maryland at
Hagerstown. We are also working with the Universities at Shady Grove to
establish a Respiratory Therapy program at its Rockville campus
beginning in Fall 2008.

This is one of Salisbury University’s most exciting and timely
academic initiatives. Distance learning centers such as these introduce
Salisbury University to a wider audience of students and families and
provide opportunities for affordable and convenient higher learning in
communities not served by traditional four-year institutions. By
expanding some of our most sought-after degree programs beyond SU’s
traditional campus walls, we intend to reinforce the message that we are
a true statewide institution.

Finally, we continue to explore management innovations that will
enable us to contain costs and operate more efficiently. For example, we
recently entered a 15-year partnership with Pepco Energy Services to
implement a series of energy conservation strategies throughout campus.
These measures will be neither glamorous nor highly visible— they
include upgrades to 1,700 plumbing fixtures, the replacement of aging
mechanical equipment and the installation of thousands of upgraded,
energy efficient lightbulbs.

These and other relatively simple steps, though, will eventually save
SU at least $5.3 million in energy costs over the term of the agreement.
Perhaps even more importantly, they will conserve the amount of water
consumed annually by nearly 500 households and enough electricity to
power 1,600 homes. Our emissions reductions will be equal to that which
would be achieved by planting over 2,100 trees or taking nearly 1,600
cars off the road.

We also have implemented an online bill payment system that will, in
due time, virtually eliminate the cost of postage, paper bills and
invoices, along with credit card costs that have previously been paid by
the University. These initiatives, together, offer measurable progress
toward real cost containment and environmental sustainability—two of the
most compelling and urgent policy goals of our time.

The Fiscal Year 2008 Budget

The Governor’s proposed Fiscal Year 2008 operating budget is
important to Salisbury University’s ability to balance enrollment growth
with academic excellence and institutional diversity. The Governor’s
allowance, which would increase our base budget from $32.9 to $34.8
million, would allow SU to stay on course in our efforts to become more
accessible to more deserving students. If approved, this budget will
help provide Salisbury University with the means to sustain enrollment
growth, preserve our high academic standards and prepare deserving
students for success in today’s workforce.

We commend Chancellor Kirwan for his steadfast advocacy for funding
to support enrollment growth. We remain concerned, however, that our
cumulative level of state funding support—defined as our state
appropriation per student, combined with Salisbury University’s in-state
tuition charge—remains the lowest in the entire University System of
Maryland.

Over the long term, our ability to accommodate a growing student
population, attract and retain quality faculty and staff, dedicate more
funds to need-based financial aid, and offer a distinctive student
experience—those very goals that will determine our future success—will
depend upon the adoption of an adequate funding protocol. We are hopeful
that this issue of funding equity will be addressed in the coming months
by the Commission to Develop the Maryland Model for Funding Higher
Education.

Response to DLS
Recommendations for USM

As you know, the Department of Legislative Services has issued a
series of recommendations that would affect the University System of
Maryland’s proposed operating budget:

Reduce general funds for enhancement funding by
$9.3 million;

Mandate the USM to increase the transfer to fund balance by $9.3
million in FY 2008;

Reduce the general fund appropriation for enrollment funding by
$4.1 million.

I believe these recommendations, if adopted by the legislature, would
hinder Salisbury University’s ability to compete successfully with our
national peers, undermine our shared goals of access and quality, and
jeopardize our ability to train workers for success in the
knowledge-based economy. I would respectfully ask you to reject the
analyst’s recommendations.

We are particularly concerned with the recommendation to reduce
funding for enrollment growth from $7.2 million to $3.1 million. I
believe the DLS analysis dramatically underestimates the full cost of
enrollment growth at institutions that are approaching capacity. Our
enrollment growth designation in 2005 came with the expectation to
increase our student population by as many as 1,500 students over a
five-year period, beginning with the 374 students that we accepted last
fall.

When fully implemented, this initiative will increase Salisbury
University’s student population by more than 20 percent. A multi-year
commitment of this magnitude will require additional faculty and support
staff; expanded classroom, laboratory and research space; an adequate
supply of student housing; and increased funding in priorities such as
public safety, student parking, counseling and dining services. Failure
to make these corresponding investments would greatly diminish the
quality of Salisbury University’s academic programs and overall campus
experience.

Governor O’Malley’s budget proposal recognizes the unique cost
obligations that come with enrollment growth and therefore would provide
Salisbury University with a modest increase in funding for this purpose.
Conversely, if the DLS recommended action is accepted by the General
Assembly, our state support for enrollment growth in would drop to
$1,598 per student—compared to the nearly $5,500 that we currently
receive. This would further reduce our overall state appropriation per
FTES—which at $5,035 currently ranks next to last within the USM—and
would widen the existing gap between Salisbury University and the system
average.

We simply could not accommodate enrollment growth in Fiscal Year 2008
under those circumstances. It is in the spirit of our shared commitments
to access and quality that I personally ask you to reject this cut.

Response To DLS Requests For Comment

The President should comment on
the decline of students passing the nursing and teacher exams.
The President should comment on whether students are adequately
prepared to take these tests.

Salisbury University’s Teacher Education and Nursing programs
are among our largest and most prominent, and they make an
essential contribution to Maryland’s knowledge-based economy by
producing highly-skilled, workforce-ready graduates. Given the
importance of these programs to SU’s mission, we are not
satisfied with passage rates that are consistently below our
standards. Several timely initiatives have been developed to
ensure that SU graduates in both fields are better prepared to
pass their professional exams on the first attempt.

The following steps have been taken within our Seidel School
of Education and Professional Studies to improve performance on
the PRAXIS assessments:

Requesting that faculty undertake a concerted study of
PRAXIS II examinations in their content areas, both in terms
of content tested by different portions of the exam and how
that content knowledge correlates with required content-area
courses;

Careful review of student transcripts and plans of study
to determine if there is an optimal time for candidates to
take the PRAXIS II exam based on courses they have already
completed and when they plan to complete other key courses.
Based on that review, faculty will recommend the most
meaningful and appropriate time for candidates to take the
test(s);

Offering PRAXIS II workshops to students in early
methods courses. These workshops will review the ETS Test
(At a Glance) materials, specifically focusing on areas of
the test and the kinds of questions the test requires;

Given the importance that PRAXIS II places upon
subject-specific knowledge, and that social studies is the
largest of all secondary content areas, Seidel School
faculty are considering requiring candidates to complete the
social studies minor; and

Analysis of test results for patterns of performance so
that future adjustments to this plan can be made.

With an 83 percent first-time passage rate, SU’s Department
of Nursing has already experienced improvement in this year’s
National Council Licensure Examination - Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN)
results. However, SU’s Nursing faculty is working closely with
the Maryland Board of Nursing in an effort to ensure consistent
progress and has also taken internal steps to prepare candidates
more effectively for the NCLEX-RN. They include:

Revising the curriculum to address areas identified as
weak when NCLEX-RN results were analyzed;

Completing online test item writing courses (basic or
advanced) through the National Council of State Boards of
Nursing;

Revisiting the early admission policy with the goal of
eliminating any person from the program—regardless of their
admission status—if their performance is sub-standard in
prerequisite courses;

Increasing emphasis on individual and peer tutoring;

Providing all graduating seniors the opportunity to take
the online NCSBN Review for the NCLEX-RN and the MedsPub
four-day review (held at SU) at no cost to the student;

and Administering the HESI Exit Exam to graduating
seniors in March 2006, which gave both faculty and students
information on areas where students need increased
preparation and provided students with a first-hand sense of
what it is like to take a 150-item exam on a computer.

A more comprehensive seven-page follow-up report has been
filed with the Maryland Board of Nursing that provides the
details of the program changes. We are confident that, as a
result of these changes, SU will experience continuedimprovement in this critical performance benchmark.

The President should comment on
future plans to increase the need-based award.

The 2004 Maryland State Plan for Postsecondary Higher
Education called for Maryland’s higher education institutions to
“review their aid programs and to target more funds to support
students, including transfer students, with financial aid.”
Consistent with that guidance, Salisbury University has
significantly increased its commitment to need-based financial
aid in recent years. In the 2000-01 academic year—my first as
President—Salisbury University committed just $133,250 to
need-based financial aid. In 2005-06, that number increased to
$885,600—an increase of 565 percent. This year, we expect to
award more than $1.1 million in need-based aid, an additional
increase of 26 percent. We are proud of our aggressive efforts
to become a more affordable institution for deserving students.
As a result of our funding constraints, however, we continue to
lag far behind our national performance peers in our delivery of
need-based financial aid.

The DLS analysis correctly states that the average merit-based
award was more than double the average need-based award in FY
2005. It must be pointed out, however, that a significant
percentage of our merit-based dollars—45 percent in FY 2005—were
actually granted to students with an Expected Family
Contribution (EFC) of $10,000 or less. Therefore, over 65
percent of our total institutional aid dollars were granted to
the students with the most need. From a recruiting standpoint,
it is preferable to offer a qualified student with demonstrated
need a merit-based award whenever possible. In FY 2007,
Salisbury University intends to award more than 70 percent of
its overall financial aid dollars to students with demonstrated
need.

The President should comment on
the current number of students accepted under the new admission
policy for fall 2007.

Given that our Fall 2007 class will be the first to be
admitted with our pilot test-optional policy in place, I believe
it is too early to measure its full effect on the composition of
our student body. It should be noted, however, that freshman
applications have increased by more than five percent over last
year. Of the 3,160 applicants that have been accepted to date,
nearly 20 percent requested “testing optional” consideration.
Once the recruiting season is complete and successful applicants
have made their decisions for the upcoming academic year, we
will be able to update the Subcommittee on the number of
students that will enroll at SU due to this pilot program.